Linux is struggling on the desktop because it only has a small number of "great" apps, according to the Gnome co-creator. Miguel de Icaza, co-creator of the Gnome desktop, told tech journalist Tim Anderson at the recent Windows 8 Build conference "When you count how many great desktop apps there are on Linux, you can probably name 10," de Icaza said, according to a post on Anderson's IT Writing blog. "You work really hard, you can probably name 20. We've managed to p*** off developers every step of the way, breaking APIs all the time."

"Hey Miguel, I can easily find hundreds of great free software desktop applications.

Yes, linux has so many great applications that users are flocking to it in great numbers........ The truth of the matter is that there is a handful of half-assed applications that works some of the time and then you update you system and another set of half-assed apps works. This is not a good situation and users do generally not have great patience with it. The most idealistic of users stay with the system for about 6 months then go :f**k it.... "

Unsupported claims. You saying something does not make it so.

Linux developers needs to listen to Miguel a lot more because he is talking sense. Step 1: Make it easy to program for Linux, using modern programming languages. Step 2: Provide stable API's and ABI's so that programs will work for a long time without excessive maintenance. Step 3: Test the programs before releasing.